


Stitches

by GooseWhiskers



Series: Hey Look, Blue Soup! [7]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: "Just Friends", Best Friends, Companionable Snark, F/M, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Mutual Pining, Stitches, Treating injuries, Whump, mutual idiots, you know that trope
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-12-24 13:09:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21099983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GooseWhiskers/pseuds/GooseWhiskers
Summary: Piper gets bitten by a dog and Nate gives her medical treatment on the road. Vulnerability invites reminiscing; Piper realizes what a good friend she's found in Blue. Friend.F r i e n d.(Someone help these idiots.)





	Stitches

**Author's Note:**

> A Whumptober prompt that got out of hand, and provided a great opportunity to explore a chapter of Nate and Piper's relationship I've never really focused on before! 
> 
> Thanks to [Daddyfuckinlonglegs](https://daddyfuckinlonglegs.tumblr.com), [Tarberrymentats](https://tarberrymentats.tumblr.com), [Shadow-Mockingbird](https://shadow-mockingbird.tumblr.com), and [InstantCoyote](https://www.deviantart.com/instantcoyote) for beta-reading! Love you guys <3

Silence fell over the campsite. Unlike the usual, easy quiet Nate and Piper so often shared in late hours, tension floated in heavy waves through the air between them. Water boiled over a hastily assembled teepee fire. Stained handkerchiefs and soap huddled sloppily beside a spool of thread and an assortment of needles. 

They’d cut through a junkyard on the way to Tenpines an hour ago, only to get jumped by a pair of scavvers and their dog unwilling to share good salvage. The dog had been the problem, really. Piper’s glove wasn’t the only thing in need of stitches.

She frowned at Nate. Black and red mottling spread like tarberry stains across his face, capped by the swollen shine of his nose. He must be hurting, but Blue never complained. Instead, his attention focused on the deep gash running down Piper’s arm. Nearly three inches long, winding an ugly streak of torn skin and blood. Another puncture stung underneath. 

“_How_ many times have you done this, exactly?” She pitched through a tight chest, watching with braced eyes as Nate unwound string. 

He smiled, meeting her gaze gently. “Five times. Twice on myself.”

“With a black eye?”

“With two broken arms and a dislocated finger.” 

A faint snicker at the outrageous claim issued through her teeth, staggering through her nerves. “Sounds a bit hard to believe, Blue. Even from you.”

“Trust me,” he coaxed, laying a reassuring hand just above her knee. It lingered.

Piper flushed a little. Blinking, he abruptly withdrew the touch - turning his attention to the instruments. 

She’d never been very fond of needles, and fists formed as he threaded one with routine nonchalance. No Med-X meant no painkiller - another prickle in her back when Blue used a red hankey to clean the wound. At least the bleeding had mostly stopped by now.

“It’ll hurt. A lot,” he acknowledged. “But I’ll try to make it as quick as possible.”

“Thanks,” she remarked dryly. 

He picked up the small needle, originally intended for sewing clothes, bent now with a clawlike curve. A long trail of string like spider silk floated behind. In a moment it would be sewing flesh. When Nate glanced back at Piper’s taut figure, he hesitated. “You can look away if you want.” 

Piper shook her head with a sharp grimace, “I need to see it.” 

He seemed to understand and didn’t object. One hand hovered over the wound. The other carefully braced her arm to expose the ragged gash. For a moment she found herself distracted by the soft, even pressure of Blue’s grip. She inhaled, swallowing back a tremor. He mistook it for pain and quickly loosened his hold. 

“Ready?” He asked.

“Y_eah._” She nodded once, resisting the urge to tense up prematurely. 

Then sharp metal dug through torn skin. Spears of pain cut the wound and Piper hissed, muscles taut on impulse. Her flinching only made it worse. _“Shit!”_

Nate managed to pull the needle through, but stopped short with the thread. “Do you need a minute?”

Aggravation, mostly at how badly the bite stung, trapped her tongue. “N-_o_. I’ve had stitches before, Blue. Just- get it over with already.”

“Alright.” He smiled, scoffing faintly.

“What?” She grimaced.

“You just…” He faltered. Shook his head. “You’ve got moxie, is all, Pips.” A familiar gloom seemed to wash over him. Not for very long. Barely enough to notice. “Alright, here goes.”

The next loop wasn’t much easier. Nor the loop after that, though she held her ground better. Blue was careful not to dig around. Probably cleaner about it than Doc Sun would’ve been. For all the tact, getting stitched still hurt like hell. Worse than the dog’s bite, that was for sure. 

Lights were dancing across her vision. It stung. It stung like ‘lurk acid. She was shaking now, and her ears throbbed. _Dizzy._ The wound started bleeding again, which Nate had to dab away at between knitting her tattered flesh. 

Piper’s willpower lost out on the seventh suture, and she buckled forward with a garbled cry. “Blue!” 

He caught her, wincing a little as the fingers on her uninjured side dug hard into his forearm. “I’m sorry,” he breathed. 

She buried her face in his shoulder mostly on impulse. For a long moment, Piper only leaned against him and waited for the infuriating white noise of pain to fade. Breathing was about all she could manage; Blue’s peculiar scent drowned out the pungence of sweat and blood. There was comfort in the closeness of her friend. 

Slowly the ringing in her ears dissipated. And she realized just _how long_ they’d been embracing. “Uh-h, geeze, Blue. Keep holding me like this and I’m gonna start thinkin’ you’re sweet on me.” She scoffed, because joking seemed like the best way to assure him she knew that wasn't really the case. He’d held widows and weeping children with as much grace. Piper only happened to be the citizen of the hour in need of Nate’s attention.

His grip faltered and he staggered a careless laugh, “Pretty girl falls into my arms, I’m obligated to savor the moment.” 

“Psh.” What a coquette. Piper let go too, wincing a little as the dropped needle swayed from her still open wound. A sticky red mess smeared down to her wrist. It still hurt something awful.

Only concern colored his gaze as Blue watched her lean back. “Are you alright?”

“Oh yeah, peachy. How - uh, how many more?”

“Maybe, halfway.” 

Piper groaned. “You know, I think I could be a secretary. Work behind a nice desk, with a radio. No dogs. No stitches.”

“Somehow I think you’d find other ways to get into trouble.” 

“Well - yeah. _Probably_.” Piper smirked at him, but Nate wasn’t looking.

Having soaked another hankey, he was now ringing it out over her arm to cleanse their half-finished mess. He’d honed in on the task again; there was something almost forceful in his gesture. “If you need a minute, we can wait. Might be good to let the bleeding stop.”

Trying to think about how bad her pain was only made the throbbing more prominent and less tolerable. Piper shook her head. “The sooner the better.”

Nate eyed her and gaped like he might argue this time, but checked himself and sighed forcefully instead. “Alright.” When he took her arm, the same careful touch was obvious, but a faint vein of tension corded through it. “Just - tell me if you want me to stop.”

Bracing didn’t help much. Already whinging, the wound rebelled fiercely against further tampering. She’d scrunched a fist around Blue’s vest before he finished the next line.

He held his breath. 

Instead of watching the work this time, Piper’s attention fastened on his face. Focused as he was on the bite, Nate seemed utterly blind to everything else. There was faint tic in his chiseled jaw. She’d seen it before when he sewed clothing, and if she hadn’t been trying so hard not to yell, Piper might’ve smiled over the quirk’s reappearance. 

His soft lips were pulled into a line of intense concentration, mirrored by the unwavering focus of flower-blue eyes. She’d seen pictures in an old book once of gardens before the War. Though it’d been yellowed with age and wear, the weathered image of forget-me-not blossoms remained vivid in her mind. Blue’s irises often reminded her of them. 

Another needle-prick. Piper's eyelids creased sharply. 

Only his hair rebelled against the strict self-control he maintained while stitching. Disheveled clumps like ruffled crow’s feathers drooped over his profile. The solid feeling of his arms around her still lingered. 

She’d always faced the immediate consequences of her actions alone. Come to accept the fact that it would always _be_ that way. Folks weren’t exactly lining up to pal around with a troublemaking snoop. Despite her good intentions, Piper knew well enough that her vices were what the Commonwealth judged her by. 

Then here was Blue, setting aside his own hurt to patch her up. And it occurred to her that he’d tolerated her presence longer than - anyone really, except for family. Challenged her critics. Put himself on the line in her defense. Even after the debacle in Goodneighbor. He was patient, and humane, and always checking Piper’s worst impulses. For the first time in a long time she wondered if, maybe, she didn’t have to do all this by herself. 

Blue was a good friend. Better than she deserved. What if they were ever more than what they were now?

A lance through torn nerves sent Piper crashing back to earth. 

Dodging bullets and chasing trouble together hardly provided any _real_ foundation for a relationship. Besides. Nate was a good friend to everyone, and even if he _ever_ went looking for - companionship, of a different kind, he’d want someone like… well, like Nora had been, probably. Someone domestic. This was adrenaline. Adrenaline and Blue being so very, very charming. And smelling very good. And - yeah. That suture hurt. _Ouch._

One last clip of scissors, a squash with the handkerchief, and he set the tools down. 

“Is it over?” She studied twelve neatly tied rows of string running down her arm. They ached faintly, but only a thin dark line and a bloodstain hinted at what’d once been a gaping wound. 

“Well, we won’t win the knitting ribbon at the Castle Fair, but it should keep you from getting an infection.” 

“You’re pretty handy to have around, Blue. Thanks.”

“Speaking of hands-” Nate cleared his throat meaningfully, amused under a faint smile. 

For a blank moment Piper stared back in confusion. When he reached up to brush her knuckles, she realized her fist was still clenched around his vest. “Oh, I uh - whoops.” She started, chest tight.

He wrapped his handiwork with cotton gauze and a hankey under duct tape, using both hands to squeeze the padding carefully. “Miss Wright, I believe you’re going to live.”

She rolled her shoulder back, testing the bind. A tenacious throb of pain pulsed out, and Piper exhaled pointedly. “L-_ucky me._”

Nate’s attention lingered on the wound for a moment. He turned and busied himself cleaning their supplies. “We’ll change the bandage tomorrow. Scarring shouldn’t be too bad if we take good care of it.”

_We._ As if staying together was a given. In spite of all else, a tingling in Piper’s stomach brought a weak grin out of her. “_Thanks_ Blue… I mean it.” She swallowed. “Usually I’d be doin’ this kinda stuff on my own.” She would’ve had to settle for wrapping the bite up and hoping for the best. Probably gotten sick. Nat would’ve worried. “You’re a good friend.”


End file.
